National Ski Patrol Doesn’t Stop When the Snow Melts

Meet the trained bike patrollers bringing NSP’s decades of mountain safety experience to trails, bike parks and races all summer long.

When people hear National Ski Patrol, they picture the slopes, but a lot of resorts and ski areas operate year-round now, and NSP's trained patrollers are out there in the summer too, not just the winter.

Same Level of Training. Different Terrain.

That's where NSP's bike program comes in. Patrollers who work bike patrol go through the same level of training used on the ski hill: a course called Outdoor Emergency Care, which is essentially wilderness first-responder training and more, covering everything from CPR to stabilizing and safely evacuating someone who's been hurt on a trail, often miles from the nearest road. There's also a lighter-duty role called bike host, which completes a shorter version of that training called Outdoor First Care, still real first aid skills, just a smaller time commitment to get certified.

 

From Bike Parks to Local Trails

These patrollers cover a lot of ground: resort-run bike parks, trail networks, even urban parks and open space, basically anywhere people are riding. So if something goes wrong on a mountain bike trail, whether it's a resort's summer bike park or a local trail system, there's a good chance a trained NSP patroller is nearby and ready to help, same as they'd be on the mountain in winter.

Keeping the Next Generation Riding Safe

NSP has also recently partnered with Specialized (the bike brand) and NICA, the organization that runs mountain biking teams and races for middle and high schoolers, specifically to expand safety coverage at youth events.

New Trails. Same Mission.

None of this is new territory for NSP—they've been keeping people safer outdoors since 1938. The bike program is simply a newer application of decades of training and experience.

With more than 30,000 patrollers nationwide—most of them volunteers—National Ski Patrol is a nonprofit dedicated to preparing first responders for wherever they're needed, from snowy slopes to summer trails.

YoColorado is proud to support that work through our YoColorado x National Ski Patrol collection, including our MTB-inspired NSP Chain Reaction Breezy Snap™ and NSP Flowline Performance Socks. Ten percent of every direct sale from the collection supports NSP and its mission.

Ride on. Give back.

 

Contributed by Lee Doberstein, National Ski Patrol Director of Marketing & Communications